A month after Lincoln's assassination, William Alvin Lloyd arrived in
Washington, DC, to press a claim against the federal government for
money due him for serving as the president's spy in the Confederacy.
Lloyd claimed that Lincoln personally had issued papers of transit for
him to cross into the South, a salary of $200 a month, and a secret
commission as Lincoln's own top-secret spy. The claim convinced
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Judge Advocate General Joseph
Holt--but was it true? For many years Lloyd had been hawking his
Southern Steamboat and Railroad Guide throughout Dixie, and it was this
thorough familiarity with the South and its people--and their
familiarity with him--that would have given him a good cover when the
time came. In July, 1861, and now desperate for cash, Lloyd crossed
enemy lines to collect debts owed by advertising clients in the South.
After just a few days in the Confederacy, officials jailed Lloyd for
bigamy, not for being a Yankee spy as he later claimed. After bribing
his way out, he crisscrossed the Southern states, trying to collect
enough money to stay alive. Between riding the rails he found time to
marry plenty of unsuspecting young women only to ditch them a few days
later. His behavior drew the attention of Confederate authorities, who
nabbed him in Savannah and charged him as a suspected spy. But after
nine months, they couldn't find any incriminating evidence or anyone to
testify against him, so they let him go. A free but broken man, Lloyd
continued roaming the South, making money however he could. In May 1865,
he went to Washington with an extraordinary claim and little else: a few
coached witnesses, and a pass to cross the lines signed "A. Lincoln"
(the most forged signature in American history), and his own testimony.
So was he really Lincoln's secret agent or nothing more than a con man?
And was Totten vs. United States--inspired by Lloyd's claim and which
set precedent for espionage law based on a monumental fraud? Find out in
this completely irresistible and wholly original work.
